I've titled this article "Cat Servants Of Twilight" to give it a Dean Koontz feeling. He's one of my favorite authors and this title fits perfectly into what our cats do to us at twilight. Meaning mind control. Our cats also practice mind control 24/7, but especially after the sun goes down.

I hope all of the readers here enjoy this story of two cat ladies who live out in the middle of nowhere, whose minds are taken over by their cats...

Do your cats do this? And is this a "cat lady" phenomenon or do men get cajoled into becoming cat servants?

I recently read an online article that stated women tend to their cats as in a mother-child relationship. I've yet to meet a child so well practiced at getting what they want as well as my cat "children."

My daughter and I both have become cat servants. It starts off innocently enough. One of us will be sitting on the sofa when one of our many cats give us "the look." You all know the look. The cat desires something and we must quickly figure out what the cat wants or risk being snubbed for noncompliance.

Usually food is involved. Sometimes it's as simple as opening a can. Many times it's more complex and we find ourselves cooking for our cats.

The same holds true with massages. My daughter and I have definitely been cat trained, as all it takes for a cat to get a massage is for the cat to jump into a lap. The world tends to stop turning at this point as all energy is focused on making the cat feel loved.

As cat servants must learn, bedtime is also about the cats. Who will sleep on the pillow by my head and who will sleep on my daughters stomach. Plus the rest of the indoor cat colony must find room to sleep. Even if it means my daughter or I are pushed to the very back of the bed in our respective bedrooms. Or off the bed. I'm surprised I haven't woken up in the floor by now.

My daughter takes several of the cats to bed with her. Others sleep on the bed or on the cat tree in my bedroom. Our foster kitty Brinkley has claimed a small table near the door.

I usually sleep fairly well. Laura, well, that's a different story. Our foster Cam will wake Laura during the night by meowing in her ear. This is a command for Laura to pet Cam on the head while meowing back at Cam. Don't ask. Cam just thinks she should be spoken to in her own language while getting her middle of the night massage.

Mealtime when I'm home is a grand affair to the cats because enough vegetables must be cooked to share with the cats. We as cat servants must cut these up for the cats without teeth. The cats also expect a plate of their own as well as the "right" to eat from our plates.

Sealy has been our latest Cat Servants Of Twilight cat. He lives in a cage due to his car fan blade accident. At night I find him looking directly at me, willing me to change his blanket for the night. He sleeps on the same blue blanket Furby used as a kitten. It must be washed every day as Sealy doesn't get out of the cage to use the litter box. (We let him out of the cage and he slept in the litter box, which can't happen with his head wound). So we go through a lot of bedding.

I'll be watching TV and Sealy will poke his little head up in the air. Usually this happens immediately before he walks over to his feeding dish. At this point, I'm supposed to feed him a can of cat food or break up some meat and cooked veggies for him to snack on. If I sit around ignoring him, I get "the look." I don't know what Sealy would do to me if he had to inspect an empty food bowl for the second time.

Yes, the title of this article would make for a great cat book. It would be about two cat ladies whose minds were slowly taken over by their cats. This is an ongoing story, so if you go for days without hearing from me, consider me hypnotized by a houseful of cats. Some days I'm not allowed to stop massaging long enough to get on the computer.

Not only are the cats able to hypnotize us into waiting on them hand and food, they've also convinced us we enjoy serving them!

Are any of you cat servants of twilight? Is this some kind of mind control or plain old-fashioned love for our cats? I'd really love to hear stories of how your cats control your life.

P.S. We also have dogs, and the dogs can't do the mind control trick.

Elisa

Comments for Cat Servants Of Twilight

The first thing Jeff does in the morning, even before using the bathroom, is to stand in the hallway on one foot, holding onto the door frame, while using the other foot to pet Monty. My husband and Monty invented this strange kind of petting, but Monty insists upon it.

When Jeff gets home from work it is time for more foot petting and for what Jeff calls "floppy cat." Jeff holds Monty on his back, rubbing his belly, stroking his tail, playing with his ears-- all things cats usually don't like-- and Monty purrs like he's got a V8 engine in his chest and goes completely limp with contentment.

Before Monty goes to sleep in his own room Jeff has to first come in there and pet Monty on top of his cat tree. He plays with the cat also and "roughs him up" as he puts it, petting in both directions, roughing up his fur as Monty purrs like crazy. On nights when Monty sleeps in our room Jeff will bring in the cat in bed with him, stick him under the covers and pet him. My husband says that Monty likes the sides of his face stroked and under his chin. The purring will be like Monty has a V12 in him and it's been known to continue at that volume for 20 minutes. Sometimes the cat will sit at the end of the bed and then my husband gets his foot out from under the blankets to stroke Monty with it.

Monty has trained my husband in the right ways to pet him, where he likes to be petted, and what part of the human body he expects to be petted with-- and this grown man, who says he merely tolerates the cat, gets up out of bed a few minutes earlier than he would have had to in order to pet the cat, pulls a warm foot out from under the covers to pet the cat and gives his wife lessons in the "right" way to pet the cat.

Mar 20, 2012Rating

Yesby: Michael

Yes, Elisa, I suffer from cat mind control. But, you know, it is not the cat that is the ultimate source of the mind control. It is us. We, who are tender towards fellow creatures will respond to that look, that asks for help.

Here is an hypnotic stare from a melanistic Savannah cat at A1 Savannahs, a cat breeder in OK, USA. I took the photo. He so wanted to be with me. He licked my trousers until they were wet. True.